Rodeo Fun!

Hudson loves attending the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo each year, and since it comes to town for three weeks, we usually can fit it into the schedule. Most years we've actually attended the rodeo in the evening, but this year we thought a little wiser and decided that going in the afternoon/early evening would be best for our little one. Keeping her contained in any type of seat is more of a challenge these days, and I certainly didn't want to be "that" attendee of the actual rodeo that had to keep getting up with her child, or telling her child to sit multiple times without much obedience. So the great thing about the livestock show is all the exhibits that they have to attend. We went through a "farm" where Micayla fed the chickens, planted a tomato, picked a peach, picked corn, milked a cow, gathered sheep wool, and then turned everything in at the farmers market for "money." She could buy a treat (chips, crackers, juice, etc.) with the money she earned for doing her part in contributing to the farmers market. Micayla's favorite exhibit was the "birthing center" where they know certain cows will give birth during the rodeo, as well as goats, sheep, and pigs. Her second favorite part was the petting zoo...we might have a vet on our hands because the child loves all animals and isn't scared of them at all.


Cute cowgirl in her "rodeo" shirt


Going to feed the chickens and gather an egg


Posing with her favorite cowboy (my favorite cowboy too!)


Milking a cow


Riding the tractor to pick corn


Selling everything at the Farmers Market


Petting a bunny (who apparently loves Fruit Loops)


Talking to the chickens (she liked to tell them "gobble gobble"...we need to work on differentiating between chickens and turkeys)


She would climb in there with the mama cow if we let her...this cow had just had a baby calf about an hour before


They have all the pens set up for different animals in the Birthing Center, so these were the lambs that had just been born. Sheep normally give birth to twins or triplets, and the sheep behind Hudson and Micayla had given birth to a set of boy/girl twins earlier in the day. The sign (I know it is little) to the left of Hudson (about waist level) says the new twins' names: Hudson! (and Norma Jean, but I think that sign is hidden). I had to take a picture because it isn't often that you have a lamb named after you without even knowing it!


Looking at more baby animals that had recently been born (piglets, I think)


Trying on a pink cowgirl hat...she really wants one but we don't think she's quite old enough to care for it carefully enough. Maybe in a few years we'll get her one. :)


Playing a matching animal game on Mommy's phone while Daddy investigated different dining options.